Lord Krishna’s birthday is celebrated as Janmashtami, Gokulashtami and Krishna Jayanthi .Though we have been celebrating form time immemorial yet his birthday spells charm every year.
Krishna is also called Guruvayoorappan. In Guruvayoorappan temple in Nanganallur, the petite icon looked endearing, flashing a mischievous smile. After a holy bath in the morning, he was draped pure silk veshti and adorned with tulasi garland. In the evening, the outer walls of the sanctum sanctorum were lit with lamps which radiated brightly.
Butter, aval, and bakshnam – uppu seedai, vella seedai and pal payasm - were offered to him. Is he not fond of butter?
Uriyadi was held and many onlookers and participants felt an adrenaline rush. It is not easy to play this dicey game.
In the Divya Desam at Triplicane in Chennai, Krishna, also Parthasarathy, was majestic and frightening with his white moustache .Here he is an adult and is a charioteer – Sarathy - for Partha – Arjuna.
 After a holy bath at dawn, he blessed the devout who flocked in hundreds to worship him. Vedic pundits recited verses from Nalayira Divya Prabandham. Some women were rendering songs on Krishna like ‘Alaipayudhe’ in Kanada, ‘Parvai Onre Pothume’ in Suruti.
Special pooja called Aradhanam was performed to the Lord and prasadam distributed.
Women in the surrounding agraharam drew elaborate kolams in rice flour and drew tiny legs of Krishna – Krishna kaladi - to commemorate his birth.
It was a veritable paradise on earth.
In many houses women had been in preparatory mode from Sunday onwards. Since many are fastidious about the quality of rice, they ransacked shops asking for bakshanam rice.
The preliminaries over, they plunged into making uppu seedai , vella seedai the previous day.
On Gokulashtami, women, young and old, were sweating it out to celebrate the Lord’s birthday. Appam, sukiyan, pal payasam sukku vellam, vadai, buttermilk, curd and fruits were offered to him.
 The aroma of oil wafted in the streets as women started their preparation in the morning itself.
For some women vella seedai troubled them and they had to call up their mothers and mothers-in-law over phone, begging for a solution.
Some women were mortally scared of uppu seedai cracking while being fried and so they moved away after dropping them in the oil.
Children dressed up as baby Krishna went about carrying sweets and savouries to friends and relatives.
Krishna’s birthday casts a magic spell perennially
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